Problems with ankle 3 years post surgery

I broke 2 of the major bones in my ankle 3 years ago. I had surgery to afix the ankle back together with plates and screws. I was unable to bear any weight on my ankle for 3 months and then slowly began walking on it and working in physical therapy. About a year and a half after, I was still having problems and the sides of my ankles were killing me. My doctor suggested that it was the screws coming out and I underwent surgery to remove the hardware. I am about a year and a half after that surgery and am still having problems with my ankle. My doctor seemed to think that it was the post tibial tendon. We tried special shoes to see if that helped, it did not...and my ankle is not just hurting on the inside of my ankle where the post tibial tendon is located. I still have severe swelling in my ankle adn it is still numb on the majority of the outside of my ankle. I have limited mobility, and am still dealing with moderate to severe pain every day! is there a answer for this or am I doomed to a lifetime of pain with this ankle?

[Michael L Gross, MD]

You may have post-traumatic arthritis.  Treatment at this point may include NSAID's, oral or injected steroids, and physical therapy.  Some success has been reported with visco-supplementation such as Synvisc.  If non-surgical treatment is not successful, then surgery is an option.  Surgical possibilies are arthroscopic debridement, ankle fusion, or total ankle replacement surgery.